headhuntershorrorhousefandomcom-20200215-history
Fly, The (1986)
| running time = 96 min. | country = USA | language = English | budget = $15,000,000 IMDB; The Fly (1986); Box office & business. | gross revenue = $60,629,159 | preceded by = | followed by = ''The Fly II'' }} The Fly is a 1986 American science-fiction body horror film directed and co-written by David Cronenberg. Produced by Brooksfilms and distributed by 20th Century Fox, the film stars Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis and John Getz. Loosely based on George Langelaan's 1957 short story of the same name, the film tells of an eccentric scientist who, after one of his experiments goes wrong, slowly turns into a fly-hybrid creature. The score was composed by Howard Shore and the make-up effects were created by Chris Walas, along with makeup artist Stephan Dupuis. The film was released on August 15, 1986 to massive acclaim by critics and audiences, with praise mainly regarding the special effects and Goldblum's performance. It grossed $60.6 million at the box office against its nine-million-dollar budget, becoming the largest commercial success of Cronenberg's career. Walas and Dupuis' work on the film resulted in their winning an Academy Award for Best Makeup, the only film directed by Cronenberg to win an Oscar. A sequel, directed by Walas, was released in 1989. Plot Seth Brundle, a brilliant but eccentric scientist, meets Veronica "Ronnie" Quaife, a science journalist, at a press event. He takes her back to his warehouse home and laboratory and shows her his invention: a set of "telepods" that allows instantaneous teleportation from one pod to another. Seth convinces Ronnie to keep the invention secret in exchange for exclusive rights to the story, and she begins to document his work. Although the telepods can transport inanimate objects, they mutilate live tissue, as is demonstrated when a baboon is turned inside-out during an experiment. Seth and Ronnie begin a relationship. Their first sexual encounter inspires Seth to reprogram the telepod to cope with living tissue, and he successfully teleports a second baboon. Ronnie departs before they can celebrate, and Seth worries that she is rekindling her relationship with her editor Stathis Borans; in reality, Ronnie has left to confront Stathis about a veiled threat, spurred by his jealousy of Seth, to publish the telepod story without her consent. Seth decides to teleport himself alone, unaware that a housefly has slipped inside the transmitter pod with him. He emerges from the receiving pod seemingly normal. Seth and Ronnie reconcile. Seth begins to exhibit increased strength, stamina, and sexual potency, which he believes is a result of the teleportation "purifying" his body. He has sugar cravings and Ronnie is concerned about Seth's insanity and strange, bristly hairs growing from his back. He becomes arrogant and violent, insisting that the teleportation process is beneficial, and tries to force Veronica to undergo teleportation. When she refuses, he abandons her, goes to a bar and partakes in an arm-wrestling match, leaving his opponent with a compound fracture. He meets a woman named Tawny and brings her back to his warehouse, where Ronnie rescues her from teleportation. Seth throws her out, but when his fingernails begin falling off, he realizes something went wrong during his teleportation. He checks his computer's records and discovers that the telepod computer, confused by the presence of two lifeforms in the sending pod, merged him with the fly at the molecular-genetic level. Seth continues to deteriorate, losing body parts and becoming less human in appearance. He reconnects with Ronnie and theorizes that he is becoming "Brundlefly", a hybrid of human and insect. He has begun vomiting digestive enzymes onto his food to dissolve it and has gained the ability to cling to walls and ceilings. He realizes he is losing his human reason and compassion, driven by primitive impulses he cannot control. Seth installs a fusion program into the Telepod computer, planning to dilute the fly genes in his body with human DNA. Veronica learns that she is pregnant by Seth and has a nightmare of giving birth to a giant maggot. She has Stathis persuade a doctor to perform an abortion in the middle of the night. Having overheard their conversation, Seth abducts Veronica before the abortion can take place and begs her to carry the child to term, since it may be the last remnant of his humanity. Stathis breaks into Seth's lab with a shotgun, but Seth disfigures him with his corrosive vomit. Seth reveals his desperate plan to Ronnie: he will use the telepods to fuse himself and her, together with their unborn child, into one entity. As Seth drags her into one of the telepods, she accidentally rips off his jaw and an enormous insectoid-human creature bursts from Seth's skin. It traps Ronnie inside the first telepod and enters the other. The wounded Stathis uses his shotgun to sever the cables connecting Ronnie's telepod to the computer, allowing Ronnie to escape. Breaking out of its own pod just as the fusion process is activated, Brundlefly is gruesomely fused with the metal door and cabling of Telepod 2. As the deformed Brundlefly/Telepod creature crawls out of the receiving pod, it begs Ronnie to end its suffering with the shotgun, and she tearfully shoots it. Cast Notes & Trivia * Production on The Fly began on December 1st, 1985. Principal photography concluded on February 28th, 1986. The movie was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. * The movie was shot in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. IMDB; The Fly (1986); Filming locations. * The tagline for this film is, "Be afraid. Be very afraid". This is an actual line of dialogue spoken in the film by Geena Davis' character. * Actor Leslie Carlson is credited as Les Carlson in this film. Recommendations External Links * * * The Fly at Wikipedia * * * * * * * References ---- Video Category:Films Category:1986 films Category:1st installments Category:Remakes Category:Brooksfilms Category:Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation Category:David Cronenberg Category:George Langelaan Category:Charles Edward Pogue Category:Marc Boyman Category:Stuart Cornfeld Category:Kip Ohman Category:Howard Shore Category:Mark Irwin Category:Ronald Sanders Category:Jeff Goldblum Category:Geena Davis Category:John Getz Category:Joy Boushel Category:Leslie Carlson Category:George Chuvalo Category:Michael Copeman Category:Carol Lazare Category:Shawn Hewitt Category:Films with crew categories